Today in History

1775 US Army first forms as the Continental Army to fight American Revolutionary War

1777 US Continental Congress adopts the Stars & Stripes flag, designed by Francis Hopkinson, replacing the Grand Union flag

1847 Robert Bunsen invents the Bunsen burner

1916 Democratic Convention convenes in St Louis; Woodrow Wilson campaigns on the slogan “he kept out of the war”

1922 US President Warren G. Harding is 1st US President to use radio, dedicates the Francis Scott Key memorial in Baltimore

1928 Republican National Convention, meeting in Kansas City, nominates Herbert Hoover for President

1940 Auschwitz concentration camp opens in Nazi controlled Poland with Polish POWs (approx. 3 million would die within its walls)

1951 1st commercial computer, UNIVAC 1, enters service at Census Bureau

1953 Eisenhower condemns McCarthy’s book burning proposal

1953 Elvis Presley graduates from L. C. Humes High School in Memphis, Tennessee

1954 President Eisenhower signs order adding words “under God” to the Pledge

1967 California Governor Ronald Reagan signs the Therapeutic Abortion Act, legalizing abortions in the state under certain circumstances, the second state after Colorado to do so

1973 US President Richard Nixon administration imposes 60-day economy-wide price freeze, superseding Special Rule No. 1 for oil companies

1982 Argentina surrenders to Great Britain, ending the 74-day Falklands Islands conflict

1984 Southern Baptist convention decide on no women clergy members

1989 Zsa Zsa Gabor arrested for slapping Beverly Hills motorcycle patrolman

1993 Ruth Bader Ginsburg is nominated to the United States Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton

2013 The US government charges NSA leaker Edward Snowden with violating the Espionage Act and theft of government property

Movies & TV

1967 “Steve Allen Show” premieres on CBS-TV

1976 “Gong Show” premieres on TV (syndication)

1991 “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” opens directed by Kevin Reynolds and starring Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman

1996 “Cable Guy” starring Jim Carrey is released

2002 “The Bourne Identity” directed by Doug Liman and starring Matt Damon is released in the US

2015 “Jurassic World”, 1st film to make $500 million worldwide in its opening weekend